Silicon Valley Comic Con 2017 - Gina Torres Panel

Gina Torres, a very gifted actress famous for her roles in Firefly, Suits, Westworld and many others came to Silicon Valley Comic Con. She is a very talented performer, having done, Television, Movies, Stage and Voice Acting.

The moderator started off the panel, asking her very common questions. The first one was what got her interested in performing. The first one was who was her main inspiration. She quickly answered it was Fred Astaire, specifically it was from "Swing Time" that got her interested. Seeing the interactions between him and Ginger Rogers. She saw the magic there and wanted to be part of it. The first big role that she had was in a school play of Barnum where she played the "Oldest Woman in the World". She managed to convince the teacher to let her strip down to the leotard she had underneath because everyone knew she was a young woman underneath.

Next was a question about Silicon Valley Comic Con. It is somewhat unique in that it focuses on both art and technology. She was asked what she felt was the most important. Torres responded talking about the innovations in technology. She did see it both as a gift and a curse with texting. She could easily talk with friends from great distances in real time. She also saw it as a curse because people are growing up without having to write letters and form complete sentences. She also saw it as tragic that people could text across the room instead of walking over to talk with the other person.

Gina Torres was then asked about who she is most excited to meet. She said that she gets all stupid any time she gets to meet Rita Moreno. She is in perpetual awe of Rita. Sher did also say that she is very friendly with the cast of Star Trek as well since they wind up doing a lot of conventions together.

After that, she was asked about what she considers the most intriguing aspect of the various kinds of performance she does. Stage she enjoys the simplicity of it. That it is just you, the cast and crew and the ride on through from start to end. For Television she sees it as a study in minutia. It is about bringing the characters into the living room with the audience. You cannot be as large as you can be on stage. She did tell us, unsurprisingly that the scenes are not shot in order. She also enjoys doing the Voice over work because of her time as a singer.

She was asked if there were any fields she wants to expand into. Gina responded that she has done a lot and looks to keep doing things like this.

She was then asked about what she likes to watch. She immediately responded with her love of "Feud." She very much enjoys shows with a lot of passion in them. She loves to see passion and excellence in what she is watching.

Next Gina was asked about working on Boondocks and playing opposite one of the characters. She told the audience that it was one of the more common cases with Voice Work where she recorded her lines separately from the other performer.

She was asked about Justice League next. She talked about her role both as Vixen and Superwoman (in an alternate universe). She, as Superwoman was the girlfriend of Jimmy Woods. Gina then got to say that they were lovers. Eventually, they did meet and she told him, "You've never met me, but we were lovers." It took him a long while to realize what she was talking about. She mentioned Justice League to him and that caused everything to fit together.

Next Torres was asked about her favorite "Suits" episode. She responded with the flashback episodes. She also enjoyed the final seasons where her character was losing control of what she had.

The next question was what she liked to do when not performing. Gina responded quickly with spending time in her kitchen. She very much enjoys cooking Cuban food.

Next was asking about her favorite movies. She had quite a few and added to it as the panel went on. "All About Eve", "Singing in the Rain", "Lion on a Plane", "Sweet Smell of Success", and "Miracle Worker".

She also talked about how writers seemed to get lazier once you could curse in movies. Before they had to work at implying it or saying those things without actually saying it. She very much enjoyed the cleverness behind it.

One of the questions was what her favorite scenes to do in Firefly. She told us that she very much enjoyed working with Alan [Tudyk] and Ron [Glass]. Apparently, there was a lot of fun had behind the camera when they were not shooting. Later it was asked if she would return to Firefly, but she did say that the passing of Ron did take a lot of the fire out of those ideas.

Next, she was about her time in New Zealand for filming Xena. She described her time there as coming home, something about it that felt familiar. She enjoyed working with the rest of the cast of the show and remains friends with many of them to this day.

Naturally, with her role as Ikora Rey in Destiny, she was asked about Destiny 2. She told us there was very little she could talk about there aside from she is recording lines for it. All she did say about it is how much you hear from her could be determined by your skill level.

She was also asked about her worst experiences on set. Most of them, for Gina, talked about the weather. There were times shooting Suits, in Canada, where she was close to freezing for the scenes. With Firefly, there were times that she was roasting because of her heavy pants and duster. They would save their energy and just come alive for the scenes.

Gina was asked if she would do a comedy role in Black-ish. She told us that you need to be very well connected to be in that show. It is not an easy show to get onto.

She was, naturally, asked if she would reshoot any scenes from Firefly. She responded with she would perform to do 10 new scenes for the show.

One of the last things she talked about was her role in West World. Most of it was told in confidence, that has a larger role in the show than she thought. There is still very little that even she knows about the character. She did her initial recording but then the show went on hiatus. She had resumed shooting "Suits" when they reached out to her again to continue filming her scenes.

Next, she was asked about working with Joss Whedon. She told us that she would love to go around in his head. He has a large mind with a lot of things going on in it. He created entire worlds and filled with them with their own life and energy. She talked about playing Zoe who is very much an authentic person. She filled a number of roles, as a Soldier, Warrior, partner, and wife.

The final question was about the series "Huge" that she was in. She was asked what intrigued her about it. It was the premise of the series, the exploration it offered into being the "other" in society. With all the kids in the fat camp with Gina as a counselor who went to the camp and lost all of the weight. She liked the premise where the others are brought to a place where they are the normal ones, where they are all the same. One of the core things she enjoyed was playing the counselor who still felt like she was the little fat girl inside.

This panel was a treat to listen to. Gina Torres had a lot to talk about and has definitely done a lot across her acting career. She was very happy to answer the questions the attendees had for her.